Real Estate Sign Riders: What They Cost and Which Ones Earn a Call
A rider is the strip that hangs above or below a sign face. On the current card it is $21 to $30, which makes it the cheapest thing printed on this site. Price one in the new sign tool.
It is also the only piece of a sign you can change while the sign stays in the lawn. That is what the money buys, and it is the test for whether a rider is worth printing at all.
What does a real estate sign rider cost?
| Rider | Size | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Sleeve | 6 x 18 in | $21 |
| Sleeve | 6 x 24 in | $23 |
| Sleeve | 8 x 24 in | $25 |
| Top or bottom | 6 x 32 in | $21 |
| Top or bottom | 6 x 36 in | $21 |
| Picture rider | 10 x 32 in | $30 |
| Picture rider | 10 x 36 in | $30 |
None of these drops at two or more. A spare costs the same as the first one, which is the argument for keeping a spare.
Large riders are a different row. They are sized for the large format panels a listing board uses, not for a lawn sign: $40 at 8x48, $50 at 12x48, $60 at 12x72, and $60 at 8x96. If you are putting sold across a development board, that is the row you want.
- Top rider, 6 x 36 in
Six inches of new message above a face you keep. Sold, open house, or your name and phone when the panel under it is brokerage stock.
- The panel, 36 x 36 in
The face itself. This is the piece you do not want to reprint every time the news changes, which is the whole argument for the two strips around it.
- Picture rider, 10 x 36 in
Ten inches, the only rider tall enough to hold a photograph. Hangs on the bottom rail, below the face.
Which riders earn a call?
A rider earns its money when it tells a driver something the panel cannot. There are three of those, and they are the only three.
The status. Sold, open house, coming soon, price improved. The panel says the house is for sale. Only the rider can say the house just sold, which is the single most useful sentence a sign has ever said to a neighbour thinking about listing. A sold strip hung for a week after closing is neighbourhood marketing at $23, and it is reusable on every listing you close after that.
A fact the buyer cannot see from the road. Legal duplex. Sixty by one fifty lot. Backs onto ravine. In-law suite. Triple garage. A buyer who wants that feature slows down; a buyer who does not keeps driving, which saves you a call rather than losing one. This is the rider most agents never print, and it is the one that does the most work on an investment property or an unusual lot. Peterborough and the towns east of Durham list a lot of it.
You, when the panel is not you. Plenty of agents run a brokerage stock panel with a brokerage phone number on it. In that case the rider is not decoration, it is the entire reason the sign generates a call to you instead of to the front desk. A $23 sleeve turns a brokerage advertisement into your advertisement. The full kit that sits around that panel is in the sign count guide.
Which riders are wallpaper?
Anything with a date or a time on it. "Open house Sunday 2 to 4" is one afternoon of use out of a strip you could have hung for three years. Print the words "open house" and let the time live on a directional, which is $25 at 18x24 and comes off the lawn on Sunday night anyway. The same rule kills "new price $X": the number changes, the rider does not.
A rider that repeats the panel. Your name is already on the sign. Your brokerage is already on the sign. A second copy of either reads, from a car at forty, as a sign with two headlines and no message.
A web address. Nobody has ever typed a URL off a lawn sign while driving. A phone number gets dialled. A domain gets forgotten by the next corner.
A photograph on a 6 inch strip. Six inches of height is a word, not a face. If you want your photo on the sign, that is the 10 inch picture rider at $30, and the file has to hold up at that size. What a photo needs to print sharp is in the photo resolution guide.
A status you will not actually use. Coming soon is a rider for an agent who runs pre-market listings. If you do not, it is $23 in a drawer.
Rider or a new face on the panel?
These are the two ways to change what a sign says, and the choice is not really about price.
| Change the message by | On a 24x36 | Panel leaves the lawn |
|---|---|---|
| Hanging a 6x24 sleeve | $23 | No |
| Third re-face, one strip | $30 | Yes |
| Half overlay | $40 | Yes |
| Full re-face | $55 | Yes |
| A new panel | $85 | Yes |
The cheapest re-face is only $7 more than the sleeve, so cost is not what decides it. Production time is. A re-face means the panel comes off the frame, goes to Oshawa, and comes back, and the listing stands there without a sign while that happens. The window is in the turnaround guide. A rider is a strip you hang on a Saturday morning.
So the rule is about permanence, not dollars. If the thing that changed will change again, it is a rider: status, open house, a feature you are testing in the headline. If it will not change again, it is a re-face: a new phone number, a brokerage move, a designation. Printing a permanent change on a rider leaves you with a sign whose panel disagrees with its strip, and the full break even on re-facing is in the update or replace guide.
What size rider fits your sign?
Rider width tracks panel width. The sizes on the card are not arbitrary, they are cut to the faces they hang on.
| Your panel is | Riders that match | Price |
|---|---|---|
| 24 in wide, a 24x24 or 24x36 | 6x24 sleeve, 8x24 sleeve | $23, $25 |
| 32 in wide, a 32x36 or 32x48 | 6x32 top or bottom, 10x32 picture | $21, $30 |
| 34 in wide, a 34x36 | 6x32, sitting an inch inside each edge | $21 |
| 36 in wide, a 36x36 or 36x48 | 6x36 top or bottom, 10x36 picture | $21, $30 |
| 48 in wide, a large format panel | Large riders, 8x48 up to 8x96 | $40 to $60 |
The 6x18 sleeve at $21 is the odd one. Eighteen inches is narrower than every lawn panel on the card and exactly the width of an 18x24 directional, so that is the frame it suits rather than a lawn sign.
The 8x24 sleeve is worth the extra $2 over the 6x24 in one case: when the rider is carrying two lines rather than one. A name and a phone number at eight inches of height read; at six they compete.
If you are not sure what width your frame takes, measure the panel across the top and call (905) 259-4361 before you order. A rider two inches off looks worse than no rider at all.
How do you order a rider?
Price it in the new sign tool, which puts the rider on the order beside whatever else you need. A new face on a panel you already own is the update tool.
True Sign Group prints the strip in Oshawa. Pickup at the shop is free. Delivery is $15 flat on the order wherever the van already runs, which is Toronto and the rest of the GTA, Durham Region, and Port Perry, Uxbridge, and Beaverton. Rush is $25 flat. Peterborough, Lindsay, Cobourg, and Port Hope are printed at the same price and picked up in Oshawa, so this page does not quote a delivery fee there. The full list is on the service areas page.
One last piece of arithmetic worth having. A 36x36 panel is $105. Four riders for it, a sold, an open house, a feature strip, and a spare, are $84. That is $84 to give one sign four things to say for as long as the panel lasts, which is a better use of $84 than almost anything else on the card.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a real estate sign rider cost?
A rider is $21 to $30. The 6x18 sleeve and the 6x32 and 6x36 top or bottom strips are $21, a 6x24 sleeve is $23, an 8x24 sleeve is $25, and a picture rider at 10x32 or 10x36 is $30. No rider gets a quantity break, so two is twice one.
What should a real estate sign rider say?
Whatever the panel under it cannot say. A status word such as sold or open house, a property fact a buyer cannot see from the car, or your name and phone when the panel is brokerage stock. Never print a date or a time on a rider: that is one weekend of use out of a $23 strip you could hang for years.
Is a rider cheaper than reprinting the sign?
Yes, and the gap is smaller than agents expect. A 6x24 sleeve is $23. The cheapest re-face on a 24x36 panel is $30, a full one is $55. The real difference is not the $7: a re-face takes the panel out of the lawn for the production window, and a rider does not.